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Monday, 17 February 2014

Scotland and the Crisis of Big Power in Europe

Alphen, Netherlands. 17
February.Rabbie Burns once wrote, “The
best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley”.It is hard to see but Scotland and Switzerland
are linked.Both are small countries in
which a significant part of the population is seeking self-determination in the
face of big and ever more distant power. In Switzerland’s case it is against the
distant behemoth the EU has become.In
Scotland’s case it is against the British State.What has happened over the past week has
demonstrated just how nervous big power is about government for the people, by
the people and of the people and on that issue alone I am a Scottish
nationalist.

In a carefully co-ordinated
attack Britain’s three main political parties said an independent Scotland
would be denied the pound sterling.Yesterday, the President of the European Commission said it would be “difficult,
almost impossible” for Scotland to join the EU.Now, I am no fan of the Scottish Nationalists and their efforts to destroy
my country but I am a democrat who believes that power should remain as close
to and as closely linked with the people as possible.

That is why I like
Nicola Sturgeon, Deputy Leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party. She is
bright, articulate, personable and honest and a breath of fresh air compared to
the many truth dodgers and weavers in the Westminster Village.For Sturgeon Scottish independence is not
some misty-eyed nationalist fantasy courtesy of Mel Gibson bouncing around the
Scottish Highlands in a skirt trouncing historical fact as he goes.Independence is about re-establishing the
lost link between people and power destroyed by a Westminster Village indifferent
to the needs of the people and a Brussels elite obsessed with the creation of a
distant new country called ‘ Europe’ nobody wants.Indeed, her emphasis on political principle distinguishes
Sturgeon from her Little Scotlander
boss Alex Salmond.

So, why does Scottish
independence scare big power?There are
two essential reasons both of which reflect the growing power of distant
executives over parliaments and peoples.First, Scottish
independence would not just wipe out a 300 year old country and a 400 year old
union.Separatism would also gravely
undermine London’s authority over England, Wales and Northern Ireland and raise
fundamental questions about the governance of the British peoples.Second, Scottish independence would reinforce
the wave of democratic nationalisms sweeping across Europe as a consequence of
elite incompetence and the deepening democratic abyss.

Sturgeon’s demand that
a democratic relationship between power and people be re-established is made
more acute by the disrepute into which both the Westminster Village and
Brussels has fallen. Only last week Westminster quietly dropped a provision to
permit local constituencies to recall an MP if their behaviour was no longer
deemed appropriate.This was a clear
commitment made in the wake of the MP expenses scandal.

In presenting the
British people with a fait accompli
Deputy European Commission President Vivien Reding said in London last week that
70% of all Britain’s laws are now made in Brussels.She also said the unloved and unvoted for
European Parliament is now the strongest legislature in Europe.No-one told the British people that a consequence
of EU membership would be the utter emasculation of the Mother of Parliaments.

Now, in a sense the
Scottish Nationalists make it easy for big power by presenting an absurdly rosy
picture of Scottish independence and nor should they be surprised the British
State they are seeking to destroy is fighting back.Take the proposed currency union.It is totally unfair of the nationalists to
expect the British taxpayer to underpin and guarantee the debts of an
independent Scotland. At the very least
the British people should have a say over Scotland’s continued use of the pound
sterling and the fiscal and other liabilities they could incur in the name of
an independent Scotland.

However, it is not Scotland’s
future liabilities what worries London.Indeed, the Scots represent only 8.9% of the British economy and 8.3% of
the population and currency union would actually ensure de facto British control over an ‘independent’ Scotland.Of greater concern to Westminster is that Scotland’s
departure from the UK would increase calls for an English Parliament to
represent England’s 58 million or so people in the same way the Welsh Assembly
represents the 2 million in Wales, and Stormont the 1 million in Northern
Ireland.

Therefore, rather than
do tawdry big power deals with the European Commission London must offer a new
political vision; a Federal Britain. A
Federal Britain in which London would retain control over federal taxation and
the currency, as well as foreign and defence policy.A new English Parliament would be
established, naturally in York the ancient capital of Roman England and my own
native Yorkshire.Crucially, the Bank of
England would be renamed the Federal Bank of the United Kingdom.A Britain that looked more like America,
Australia or Canada would actually furnish Westminster with far more political
legitimacy to seek the repatriation of powers from Brussels that is the next
big political struggle.

The simple fact of political
life is that whatever happens in the Scottish referendum on 18 September Scotland
will remain a relatively small rock stuck on the end of a hugely bigger England
at the windswept margins of a broken Europe.The facts of power, people and geography will produce in effect the same
result - independence-lite or devolution max.

As an Englishman proud
of the Scottish blood coursing in his veins the departure of Scotland from the
United Kingdom would be one of the saddest days of my life.However, as a democrat I would support the
will of the Scottish people.Scots deserve
to be offered a far better vision by big power than Borg-like ‘resistance is
futile’.Like the rest of us they need a
new vision of a twenty-first century United Kingdom in a re-democratised
European Union - a new vision for a new country in a new century in a new Europe.

Nicola Sturgeon has at
least put that agenda on the table and for that alone I am grateful to her.

About Me

Julian Lindley-French is Senior Fellow of the Institute of Statecraft, Director of Europa Analytica & Distinguished Visiting Research Fellow, National Defense University, Washington DC. An internationally-recognised strategic analyst, advisor and author he was formerly Eisenhower Professor of Defence Strategy at the Netherlands Defence Academy,and Special Professor of Strategic Studies at the University of Leiden. He is a Fellow of Respublica in London, and a member of the Strategic Advisory Group of the Atlantic Council of the United States in Washington.
Latest books: The Oxford Handbook on War 2014 (Paperback) (2014; 709 pages). (Oxford: Oxford University Press) & "Little Britain? Twenty-First Strategy for a Middling European Power". (www.amazon.com)
The Friendly-Clinch Health Warning: The views contained herein are entirely my own and do not necessarily reflect those of any institution.